Homebrewing

I enjoy good beer (the stout and viscous ones) and every once in a while buy new brands in the supermarket and...am beginning to realize that I like German beers. I suddenly had a thought...If I can make beer the way I want it - dark and stout. After all illiterate european mothers have been brewing beer for ages, before modern commercial brewing technology even made its appearance. So with this confidence, I looked up online on how to brew beer at home. The hobby is called as 'homebrewing' and you not only enjoy the process, but also get to make large quantities of beer at a fraction of the cost.

But instead of getting one of those ready made kits, I decided to go the cheap way and assemble my own from scratch. Pavi does not enjoy Beer as much but still was enthusiastic about the whole process (Occasionally complains about lack of attention given to her :D). We bought a food grade water dispenser for about $10 and 5 gallon of spring water for $5 from Walmart. Good Beer is good sanitation and I did not want to use tap water and spring water costs the same as distilled water but is more natural. Next we went to Homebrew headquarters in Richardson (www.homebrewhq.com). The person there was very helpful (I dont think he was working there...more of a volunteer and everybody knew everybody else) and helped make the right choice.

We bought Cooper's malt extract+hops premixed and yeast all part of same package for $17. We could have bought stuff separately for less but since this is the first time, we decided to play safe. We came home last sunday after purchases and began to boil the stuff in 2 litres of water. After boiling we cooled it (the malt+hop mix is called Wort) and added it to the fermenter containing remaining 21 litres of water. Before adding any of this stuff, I cleaned it with cleaner and sanitized it with Iodine. Finally I added the yeast and immediately closed the cap. I closed the cap loosely so that air can get inside but no germs. Bacteria do not migrate and so they cannot find their way and get inside. This was last sunday.

On monday morning we could see foam rising from the fermenter. we could see bubbles. I kept the fermenter at a dark place and Texas temperature is favorable (especially now that hot summer ended and cool winter begins) for yeast growth. I checked it everyday and today it looked ready to bottle. The yeast had settled down as a cake. I used a hose pipe and sucked the beer into two 2.5 gallon secondary fermenter (this process is called bottling), some wine bottle and coke cans. Then the remainder (about 50 grams) of the corn sugar was boiled in water and added to the beer. This secondary fermentation will go on for about two weeks when the yeast will convert the sugar into carbondioxide and ethanol to create the fizz. The the beer can be drunk or allowed to age which improves the flavor. I will wait for one more week and check out the sample bottle. Till then I have to wait it out.

Till then I will enjoy the Beer from the local shop and Pavi her fave wine or martini.